Bird of Passage

limits of what we thought was possible. Limburgh may have been the first to complete a transatlantic flight on his own, but there were others who had attempted it before him. Two pilots, John Alcock of England and Arthur Brown of Scotland managed to fly their Vickers Vimmy bomber from Canada to Ireland in nineteen For some though, that distance wasn't far enough. That same year, a New York hotel owner

named Raymond Orte came up with a contest. He offered twenty five thousand dollars to anyone who could fly NonStop from New York City to Paris within the next five years well, five years came and went without a winner, although many did try. Prescoire Coli from France certainly did, though it hadn't gone as planned. Colli had been a pilot during World War One, and with his buddy Paul Tarrascan, the two set out to win the Orte Prize. The only difference was that they were going to fly from

Paris to New York instead. Unfortunately, they hit some serious turbulence along the way. Coolie's plane went up in flames, burning Tarrascan and putting him on the sidelines. So Coolly gave his pilot role to a young ace named Charles Nagaire. Nota was going to make the trip by himself, but decided to use Coolly as his navigator. At the request of playing designer Pierre Louvasser, Coolie and Naja Sair collaborated with Louivisier's team on a new aircraft, the Louivisier b

L eight biplane. It featured a wooden fuselage to allow it to land and floats on water. Its unique cockpit was open on top and wide enough for both men to sit next to each other. The plans three fuel tanks were large enough to carry just over a thousand gallons of gasoline in total, plenty for the trip they had planned. By April of ninety seven, the p L eight was ready for testing. Naja Sare performed several short flights around France, reaching altitudes as high as sixteen thousand feet.

Everything seemed in fine order, and after several weeks it was time for the two men to set their world record. The morning of May eighth of ninety seven, Coolie and Naja Sare strapped into their bright white b L eight biplane nicknamed Louis ou Blanc or the White Bird, all gassed up and ready to go, and as it turned out, that amount of fuel combined with their body weight made for one pretty heavy aircraft, so they ditched the undercarriage and after a few bumps, took off for the US.

They're planned route had the pilots flying over England and Ireland, then arching down through New England until finally touching down in New York right in front of the Statue of Liberty. All in all, it should have taken about forty hours from start to finish. The White Bird was spotted by many across Europe, including a British submarine commander who caught side of it just twenty nautical miles south of the

Isle of Wight. As the hours passed, spectators started gathering in Battery Park, Manhattan to watch the white bird make its water landing near the Statue of Liberty. Some even claim to have seen it flying over nearby Long Island. Papers in France jumped on the news, publishing stories about Cooley and nase Sare's successful voyage. They made history as the first people to complete a NonStop transatlantic flight. There

was just one problem. The plane hadn't actually landed. Despite being seen along the East and cboard, the White Bird never made it to New York. A man named Anson Barry, who had been living in Maine at the time, told a reporter that he'd heard a struggling aircraft overhead on May nine, but he never actually saw it. The clouds and fog overhead had instructed his view. One theory was that a passing squall had taken down the plane, while others thought Najas and Cooley had landed in Canada and

were now living amongst the native population. Over the years, investigators and enthusiasts tried locating the crash site. Some even found plane wreckage, though none of it was explicitly tied to the White Bird. Had the two men succeeded, they would have completed the first true transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, and their victory would have discouraged another aviator from trying the same thing. U S Mail pilot Charles Lindbergh was going to abandon his shot at the

Orte Prize after hearing about COOLi and Najare. But twelve days after they took off from France, Lindburgh departed from New York in the spirit of St. Louis. It landed in Paris after a thirty three and a half hour flight. The white Bird nor its pilots were never found. It's been called the everest of aviation mysteries, one that no one has been able to summit in the ninety four years since it happened. Somewhere out there are the remnants of a white wooden bird, one that flew too close

to the sun and paid the ultimate price. The Chinese philosopher Laotsu once said nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it, and he wasn't wrong when a hurricane strikes, it's not the wind we have to worry about so much as the storm surge. Rising water levels can result in massive flooding and devastation.

In two thousand five, Hurricane Katrina caused a storm surge so large the ensuing floods turned much of New Orleans into a river, damaged the city's main roads, and killed over eight hundred people. One years earlier, a tropical cyclone in Australia caused a storm surge measuring forty two feet. Hundreds died, thousands of fish, sharks, and dolphins were discovered

miles inland far from shore. The wind was so strong it drove rocks into tree trunks, and countless shipwrecks have shown us that when the ocean's churn, all it takes is one rogue wave to bring down a ship and its crew. Forever. Water nurtures, it gives life, it quenches our thirst, and yet it also has the power to destroy, much like it did in Bopaul, India in two thousand nineteen. Bopaul is a city located in the state of Mada, Pradesh, about fourteen hour drive north of Mumbai. It's been the

birthplace of politicians, authors, athletes, and movie stars. It was also the site of a may your industrial disaster in nineteen eighty four, when a gas leak at a pesticide plant killed thousands of people, but bou Paul has turned itself around since then. The city, which boast a population of almost two million, is home to numerous educational and research facilities. It was also named India's cleanest state capital

city for three consecutive years. And just like much of India, both Paul is prone to a phenomenon that occurs during the months of June through September called monsoon season. During monsoon season, a region can receive as much as ninety percent of its annual rainfall amounts in only a short few months. The monsoons also triggered dangerous floods capable of wiping out buildings, streets, and even killing people. In two thousand nineteen, however, the rains were nowhere to be found.

A drought had struck Boau Paul and locals were desperate. Without rain, crops would not grow and famine was set to plague the region. But rather than wait for Mother Nature's help, Bopaul residents saw a different solution to jump start their rainy season. They conducted a ritual known by different names in the Hindu culture, but in beau Paul it was called the Manduca Paranaia. Manduca translates to frog,

and paranaia means wedding, literally a frog wedding. During the ritual, a male frog and a female frog are selected by the people in town. The male is named Varuna, after the god of water, while the female is dubbed Barsha, meaning rain. The frogs are then dressed in ceremonial attire before they are married by a priest. Prayers are sung and the event is treated much like human wedding, after which a large feast is held and the frogs are

placed in water for their honeymoon escape. The hope is that the union of the two amphibians will please Indra, the Hindu god of rain, and will end the draft. So on July nineteenth, two frogs from beau Paul entered into holy matrimony as a way to stave off an impending famine, and it worked almost immediately. Bopaul accumulated nearly sixty seven inches of rain in September alone right after

the wedding. Their previous record had been said in two thousand and six, when rainfall amounted to a total of sixty six inches. Unfortunately, the frog wedding worked a little too well. Waters filled the streets, cars were brought to a standstill, Homes and businesses were flooded. It seemed as though there was no end in sight to the damage, and more rain was coming. A group of volunteers decided

to do something to stop it. Using to clay frogs as proxies for the original couple, the volunteers held a ceremonial divorce. They chanted mantras and physically separated the frogs to symbolize the end of their brief marriage. The rains ended just a few weeks later. Curious you better believe it. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.

The show was created by me Aaron Mankie in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com and until next time, stay curious, ye